KUDLOW: Why do you think President Obama, what did he mean, if you've got a business, you didn't build it, someone else made that happen? He claims it's being taken out of context. What do you think it means? Do you think this is Obama anti-business, anti-entrepreneur? Or do you think maybe he has been treated unfairly?

Gov. ROMNEY: Well, just read the whole speech. I found the speech even more disconcerting than just that particular line.

The context is worse than the quote.

The context, he says, you know, you think you've been successful because you're smart, but he says a lot of people are smart. You think you've been successful because you work hard, a lot of people work hard.

This is an ideology which says hey, we're all the same here, we ought to take from all and give to one another and that achievement, individual initiative and risk-taking and success are not to be rewarded as they have in the past.

It's a very strange and in some respects foreign to the American experience type of philosophy. We have always been a nation that has celebrated success of various kinds. The kid that gets the honor roll, the individual worker that gets a promotion, the person that gets a better job. And in fact, the person that builds a business.

And by the way, if you have a business and you started it, you did build it.

And you deserve credit for that.

It was not built for you by government.

And by the way, we pay for government. Government doesn't come free. The people who begin enterprises, the people who work in enterprises, they're the ones paying for government.

So his whole philosophy is an upside-down philosophy that does not comport with the American experience.

19 comments:

That was the most small-business-ignorant thing I have ever heard a president say in my 54 years, it was also the most historically-ignorant expression I have ever read of a president saying in my decades of study and teaching history.

if you saw the whole speech it is clear what comrade obama meant - and it's just what his comrade elizabeth warren meant when she said the same things a few months ago.

it's what obama told joe the plumber in 2008, and it proves he has no respect for what people earn - and the fact that we want to keep as much of what we earn and not send too much to DC to be spent by career politicians and their cronies and on behalf of their machine.

The reference to "that" in the sentence that Obama spoke was obviously to business. If you are talking about "roads and bridges," the World's Greatest Orator (or speechwriter, teleprompter, etc.) should have stated "those." Face it, he goofed.

The following is a quote from Elizabeth Warren, current favorite of progressive activists and a candidate for U.S. Senate in Massachusetts, which I found via MoveOn:

There is nobody in this country who got rich on his own. Nobody. You built a factory out there — good for you!

But I want to be clear. You moved your goods to market on the roads the rest of us paid for. You hired workers the rest of us paid to educate. You were safe in your factory because of police forces and fire forces that the rest of us paid for. You didn’t have to worry that maurauding bands would come and seize everything at your factory, and hire someone to protect against this, because of the work the rest of us did. Now look, you built a factory and it turned into something terrific, or a great idea — God bless. Keep a big hunk of it.

But part of the underlying social contract is you take a hunk of that and pay forward for the next kid who comes along.

Notice that the force of Warren’s argument derives from the notion that other people paid for various public goods, and that the entrepreneur in question thus doesn’t have a claim to anything more than a “big hunk,” the size of which shall be determined by “us,” i.e., a committee of the people who paid for various public goods, of what she has earned.

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winston, it's also what obama told joe the plumber in 2008, and it proves he has no respect for what people earn - and the fact that we want to keep as much of what we earn and not send too much to DC to be spent by career politicians and their cronies and on behalf of their machine.

Yes some of Romneys finest yet of lying and editing to his advantage. How does he keep all his lies straight. Oh he doesn't since he's already said the same thing himself before. Every business benefits from something others created first. Roads and bridges and most often the Internet. Oh Mitt. Shame on you once again.

the government can't do a dang thing without private enterprise; ultimately, government is a ENTIRELY dependent on private enterprise to finance everything. so obama and warren are putting the cart before the horse.

WAKE UP!

nobody is arguing that we don;t need roads and infrastructure - as a matter of fact, that's the primary role of govt.

it's all the other social engineering crap government does that we PATRIOTS object to.

so you have fallen for obama's straw man argument.

repeat:

Romney favors infrastructure. that real engineering. concrete.

Romney always has.

so do most on the right.

we oppose social engineering by career politicians and their cronies and lobbyist pals.

While it is true that the various infrastructures support our nation's economic activities, small businesses employ 45 to 51 per cent of all workers in the nation.

Small businesses therefore not only pay a huge amount in taxes themselves, they create about half of the nation's financial activity that pays the workers who pay the taxes that created and maintains this infrastructure in the first place. American would be in desperate straits without small business - just as it in nearly in desperate straits with clowns like Obama in government.

Look, if you’ve been successful, you didn’t get there on your own. You didn’t get there on your own. I’m always struck by people who think, well, it must be because I was just so smart. There are a lot of smart people out there. It must be because I worked harder than everybody else. Let me tell you something — there are a whole bunch of hardworking people out there. If you were successful, somebody along the line gave you some help. There was a great teacher somewhere in your life. Somebody helped to create this unbelievable American system that we have that allowed you to thrive. Somebody invested in roads and bridges. If you’ve got a business — you didn’t build that. Somebody else made that happen.

There is nobody in this country who got rich on his own. Nobody. You built a factory out there — good for you!

But I want to be clear. You moved your goods to market on the roads the rest of us paid for. You hired workers the rest of us paid to educate. You were safe in your factory because of police forces and fire forces that the rest of us paid for. You didn’t have to worry that maurauding bands would come and seize everything at your factory, and hire someone to protect against this, because of the work the rest of us did. Now look, you built a factory and it turned into something terrific, or a great idea — God bless. Keep a big hunk of it.

But part of the underlying social contract is you take a hunk of that and pay forward for the next kid who comes along.

OBAMA AND WARREN ARGUE THAT SUCCESSFUL PEOPLE OWE THE COLLECTIVE.

THAT'S BS.

THE COLLECTIVE IS FINANCED BY THE SUCCESSFUL. ALWAYS HAS BEEN.

THE RICH PAY MOST OF THE TAXES IN THIS COUNTRY; IN FACT, THE USA HAS THE MOST "PROGRESSIVE" TAX SYSTEM OF ALL DEVELOPED NATIONS.

BESIDES,

THIS WHOLE ARGUMENT IS A STRAW MAN:

BARACK HUSSEIN OBAMA JR AND ELIZABETH WARREN BOTH ARGUE THAT INDIVIDUALS OWE THEIR SUCCESS TO "THE COMMONS" BECAUSE WITHOUT RULE OF LAW, INFRASTRUCTURE, ETC AMERICA WOULDN'T BE A HOSPITABLE PLACE TO DO BUSINESS.

THIS IS A HOLLOW STRAW MAN ARGUMENT:

NOBODY ON THE RIGHT WANTS TO ERADICATE THE RULE OF LAW OR INFRASTRUCTURE. NOBODY ON THE RIGHT WANTS TO END ALL "THOSE INVESTMENTS".

IT'S NOT THE PHYSICAL ENGINEERING WE OBJECT TO.

IT'S THE SOCIAL ENGINEERING WE OBJECT TO.

AND THE NOTION THAT BECAUSE WE ALL BENEFIT FROM THE RULE OF LAW AND INFRASTRUCTURE THAT THE GOVERNMENT IS ENTITLED TO TAKE AS MUCH AS THEY WANT OF WHAT INDIVIDUALS EARN.

THIS NATION WAS FOUNDED UPON THE NOTION THAT GOVERNMENT SHOULD BE LIMITED AND OPERATE ONLY WITH THE CONSENT OF THE GOVERNED - AND THAT INCLUDES TAXES.

THE UNREAD, 2000+ PAGE OBAMACARE LAW AND THE 2000+ PAGE DODD-FRANK LAW - AND EVERY PENNY OF THE SO-CALLED "GREEN ECONOMY" LOANS - ALL VIOLATE THAT COMPACT.

THEY DIMINISH OUR LIBERTY AS THEY INCREASE THE SIZE AND POWER OF THE GOVERNMENT, AND - IN THE CASE OF THE "GREEN" LOANS AND "GREEN LAWS" - DECREASE THE GENERAL WELFARE BY HURTING THE GENERAL POPULACE - (BY WASTING DEAR FUNDS AT A TIME WHEN WE ARE ALREADY IN TOO MUCH DEBT, AND INCREASING THE COST OF ENERGY FOR EVERYONE) - IN ORDER TO ASSIST A FEW OF THEIR CRONIES AND FINANCIAL SUPPORTERS.

OBAMA AND WARREN ARE INTELLECTUALLY DISHONEST WHEN THEY MAKE THESE STRAW MAN ARGUMENTS.

OBAMA AND WARREN CANNOT ARGUE FROM THE TRUTH AND WITHOUT EMPLOYING LOGICAL FALLACIES - LIKE THE STRAW MAN ARGUMENT - BECAUSE THEIR TRUE POLITICAL PHILOSOPHY IS ANTI-AMERICAN AND COMPLETELY DISCREDITED AND MORALLY AND POLITICALLY BANKRUPT.

YES: ANTI-AMERICAN: SOCIALISM REQUIRES AN INVASIVE AND POWERFUL AND ANTI-LIBERTARIAN CENTRAL GOVERNMENT, AND THAT TYPE OF GOVERNMENT IS DIAMETRICALLY OPPOSED TO THE TYPE OF GOVERNMENT OUR FOUNDERS FOUGHT FOR AND DESIGNED.

1 - if obama meant to refer to the infrastructure ITEMS - plural - than the "smartest man ever to be potus" would have properly said THOSE and not THAT.

but maybe he ain't dat smart.

okay.

but that doesn't change the GIST of what he was saying.

and even rightwingnut morons like me - a registered dem who was raised a leftist by 2 card-carrying commies , a feller who got 2 degrees from major USA universities - understand he was saying EXACTLY what elizabeth warren said.

[see ablove comments by me.]

and note:

it's a straw man: neither romney or anyone else on the right is arguing that government has no role to lay in infrastructure.

it's the SOCIAL engineering we object to and not the structural engineering.

What really stuns me is the number of people who will still try to defend Obama and point the finger at other people. Let's get this straight...Obama did not help me build anything. In fact, he just keeps making it harder for people to succeed. I am not a lock and step Republican. I have voted Democratic before. I can tell you this....I vote for the best person for the job and that, without a doubt, is not Barack Obama!